Renee DiPietro: Woman sentenced to 20-40 years for 2023 stabbing of Michael Sides, 31, with cane blade

Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.

NORRISTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA: A  70-year-old woman was sentenced to 20-40 years in prison for the June 2023 killing of a 31-year-old man using a blade concealed in her cane. 

Renee DiPietro was convicted of third-degree murder of Michael Sides by a jury in February. Remarkably, even as court deputies wheeled her from the courtroom, she displayed defiance.

At the sentencing hearing on Monday, April 15, prosecutors proposed a term of 7 to 20 years, yet the judge ultimately opted for a harsher sentence due to her apparent lack of remorse.

According to Law&Crime, Renee DiPietro claimed, "I apologize for what happened to him, but I did not kill him, I did not take his life. He came upon me."

What happened to Micahel Sides?

On June 10, 2023, officers from the Lower Marion Township Police Department responded to a stabbing report at the intersection of Cricket Avenue and Cricket Terrace around 1.30 a.m.

Upon arrival, they discovered Sides bleeding profusely from his upper torso. He was promptly transported to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries about an hour later. 

During the investigation, Dan Rogers, a friend of Sides, informed detectives that Sides had been unexpectedly attacked earlier in the evening by a mutual friend identified as Jason DiPietro. Sides had expressed his intention to confront Jason DiPietro. 

When the altercation occurred, Sides was preventing Jason DiPietro from entering a white car, at which point Renee and Michael DiPietro, Jason's parents, exited the vehicle. 

Rogers observed Renee DiPietro aggressively approach Sides, causing him to fall to the ground with a collapsing black cane nearby. 

According to the affidavit, Renee proceeded to strike Sides while he was down. Rogers recounted that it became evident to him that Renee DiPietro had stabbed the victim. 

Following the stabbing, Rogers observed the female attempting to remove the license plate from the vehicle, after which the older male and the female, along with Jason DiPietro, fled the scene in the white sedan, believed to be a Nissan. 

Surveillance footage corroborated the incident, as detailed in the affidavit.

Detectives received statements from Renee Dipietro and her husband Michael Dipietro

Detectives visited the DiPietro residence in Philadelphia. According to the affidavit, Michael DiPietro asserted, "It was self-defense; he came looking for trouble and he got it." 

Renee DiPietro informed detectives that earlier in the evening, she received a distressing call from her son who was "upset and crying." 

In response, she armed herself with a baseball bat and walking cane and, accompanied by her husband, drove to his location. 

She recounted to detectives that when her son attempted to enter a vehicle, a "big" man intervened and assaulted him. 

She exited her vehicle to "protect her son" and claimed that when the man approached her, she "poked him," causing him to fall to the ground, before departing with her husband and son, as stated in the affidavit. 

In Sides' obituary, his family portrayed him as "a beautiful person who never saw the bad in anyone." 

The obituary continued, describing him as "He was a kind soul that loved animals and would take the jacket off his back for someone in need. Mike lived life to the fullest and would enjoy having a good conversation with anyone at any time. He is loved, and will be missed, by all that knew him, forever," the obituary concluded.